Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.... A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill.
Interpretation
Faith involves believing in things that seem unlikely or irrational.
This quote by H. L. Mencken suggests that faith is a belief in the improbable, which can sometimes lead to a lack of clear and realistic thought. Mencken further asserts that a person with unwavering faith is not merely foolish, but rather may be suffering from a form of delusion or mental illness, highlighting a critical perspective on blind faith and its implications on rational thinking.
In practice
This quote could be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of belief and rational thinking.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.
One method of destroying a concept is by diluting its meaning. Observe that by ascribing rights to the unborn, i.e., the nonliving, the anti-abortionists obliterate the rights of the living.
I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions.
I have a sense of melancholy isolation, life rapidly vanishing, all the usual things. It's very strange how often strong feelings don't seem to carry any message of action
Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.
I don't write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people. I write about people doing the kinds of things that people do.
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